During the break, Lena, Max, and Sam sat together at the table while Mia stood quietly in the corner, staring at her phone. The other students talked and laughed, but Mia seemed lost in her own world. Lena watched her curiously. “Hey, Mia, are you okay?”
Mia flinched and looked up briefly, then quickly away again. “Yes, I’m fine. I’m just... tired.”
Max frowned. “Tired? On the first day already? Didn’t you sleep well last night?”
“I did, but... well, it’s all a bit much right now,” Mia murmured softly. Her voice sounded so fragile that Lena suddenly felt sorry for her.
Sam nodded understandingly. “I get it. New place, new people, that’s always exhausting.”
“And you really didn’t get lost yesterday?” Max asked with a grin, trying to lighten the mood.
Mia smiled faintly. “No, I already know the way. My parents moved here a few months ago.”
“Okay, that explains a lot,” said Lena. “But why are you so quiet then? You can talk to us, we don’t bite.”
But Mia dodged the question, looked back at her phone, and quickly typed something. “I don’t talk much. I prefer to listen.”
Max and Sam exchanged a glance. “Sounds like she has a secret,” Sam whispered to Lena.
“I have the feeling she doesn’t want us to get too close,” Lena replied. “But why?”
In the following days, they kept watching Mia. She often sat alone, quietly eating her lunch, and avoided joining groups. When someone tried to talk to her, she answered briefly or avoided the conversation.
Once, Lena saw Mia take an old book from the library and immediately tuck it under her jacket sleeve when someone approached. She found that strange – why be so secretive with a book?
“Maybe she’s afraid we’ll interrogate her,” Max suggested. “Or she just doesn’t want anyone to know what she’s really up to.”
Sam shrugged. “Or she’s just had bad experiences. You never know.”
But Lena sensed there was more behind Mia’s reserve. Something she didn’t reveal easily. She wanted to help, but Mia seemed to have built walls around herself that were hard to penetrate.
One afternoon, when they happened to leave the schoolyard together with Mia, something strange happened: Suddenly Mia stopped, turned around, and said in a voice barely more than a whisper, “You better not be too curious. Some things aren’t meant for others.”
Lena, Max, and Sam looked at each other in astonishment. Was that a warning? Or just a defensive reaction?
“Why?” Lena asked cautiously. “What are you hiding from us, Mia?”
Mia shook her head, her eyes suddenly glistening with moisture. “It’s better if you don’t know.”
But before anyone could say anything, Max’s phone rang loudly in the silence. He grabbed the device and looked at the screen. “Hey, look who just messaged me.”
Only a cryptic symbol appeared on the display – a small black triangle with a white dot in the center. No message, no text.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sam asked, leaning forward curiously.
Mia froze when she saw the symbol. Her lips parted to say something, but then she shook her head and whispered, “Please... don’t make a big deal out of this.”
“What is that?” Lena pressed on. “And why are you reacting so strangely?”
But Mia just looked away, and in her eyes was suddenly a determination that hadn’t been there before. “Some things are better kept secret,” she said quietly, “otherwise everything just gets worse.”
Before they could ask more, Mia turned and disappeared among the trees at the edge of the schoolyard. Lena, Max, and Sam were left behind, confused and curious – and with the feeling that they had only just scratched the surface of something much bigger.
What was the meaning of this mysterious symbol? And why did Mia seem to be hiding so much?
The school year promised to be more exciting than they had thought. But one thing was certain: They would solve this mystery together – no matter what it cost.